“It was a woman’s cancer so people didn’t want to talk about it” - Bec Maddern on how breast cancer affected her

By Abigail Malbon| 3 years ago

Bec Maddern wants you to give breast cancer the finger. The AFL Footy Show co-host is supporting the Breast Cancer Network’s Australia’s campaign to give cancer the finger...bun, and she spoke exclusively to 9Honey about why the cause is close to her heart.

“When I was growing up, I grew up on a farm, and my best friend and next door neighbours’ mum died sadly of breast cancer. This was a long time ago, when we were teenagers.

“We’re very happy to say the word “breast” - as silly as it sounds - in public now, but back then it was still a disease that we didn’t know a lot about, and people didn’t openly talk about it. It seems strange now, but it was a cancer, and it was a woman’s cancer so people didn’t really want to talk about it because it was the breast, and it was a very private sort of disease in that way.

“We didn’t actually even go into the bedroom to talk to her - I mean, this was my best friend’s mum and she lived right next door but it was sort of all hidden away. It’s sort of strange looking back on it right now because we just didn’t really talk about it. It would have been a completely different set of circumstances if that happened to my best friend now.”

Bec knows that nowadays there isn’t the same stigma about discussing illness, but she hopes that the BCNA campaign can make everyone more proactive in taking the first steps to tackle breast cancer.

“People are very open about talking about self-examination, and women are so much more in-tune with their bodies these days, and they’re not embarrassed to go to the doctor if they feel something, or if they feel like something’s unusual. And even talk to their husbands - 20 years ago people didn’t even really talk to their husbands as openly, I believe, as we do these days.”

Alongside the AFL Footy Show, Bec is encouraging people to give breast cancer the bun by doing something we all love - eating cake! Baker’s Delight will be selling pink iced buns for just $1, with 100% of proceeds going to the BCNA to help men and women affected by breast cancer.

“Everybody should be supporting it because I think you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who hasn’t been directly affected, or indirectly affected, by this,” Bec explained. “It’s something that everybody you talk to knows somebody, or is related to somebody, or has a work colleague that has sadly been touched by breast cancer.
From 10 years ago research has got a lot better, and the treatments have got a lot better, and survival rates are really good now which is great news, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

From 11 May to 31 May 2017 100% of the sale of Pink Buns will be donated to BCNA to support women and men affected by breast cancer. Find out more and get involved here.